Reports: 2 killed, dozens detained in gay purge in Chechnya

MOSCOW (AP) — LGBT rights activists say that at least two people have died and about 40 people detained in what has been described as a new crackdown on gay people in the Russian republic of Chechnya.

Activists from the Russian LGBT Network said Monday that about 40 men and women have been detained on suspicion of being gay and that at least two of them have died in detention. The detainees are believed to be kept at the same facility which was named in 2017 reports.

More than 100 gay men were arrested and subjected to torture, and some of them were killed in the predominantly Muslim region in 2017, according to activists. Chechen authorities denied the accusations, and federal authorities conducted a probe that found nothing to support the reports.